Challenger 2 XF170227

March 1, 2017

Entry Three

We started at Cowes, leaving at around 11:30am and we headed westwards towards the needles channel which is at the western side of the Isle of Wight – it is marked by two Napoleonic forts. As we left the needles the open sea seemed to be a bit rough, however it was nothing compared to yesterday. As a group we began to work well together as a team compared to the past couple of days, we all seemed to know what.
Another point of note was the exceptional display of teamwork displayed by all members of the crew. As a team of 14 people including the youth members of YMCA and their staff it was wonderful to see the role reversal that took place and how we all worked together. It was great to see how everybody took a collective responsibility for the safety of themselves and also the other people on board.

Entry Two

In the morning people said that they struggled to sleep and some said they had never slept better. Breakfast went well, we made good progress and left ourselves with time to start safety training and Deck H&S, we whipped on our wet weather gear and set to work on learning our ways around the deck.

Entry One

We finally made it! Running a little late, but we’re here. It took a little while for our two groups to meet up, but it didn’t take long for us to make friends – before we spend the next week living together on the boat.

Travelling down from Nottingham and meeting the rest of our group in Coventry, our two YMCA’s have collaborated with the Tall Ships Trust to bring 8 young people living with us to experience life at sea, and learn some great life skills – not to mention how to sail.

We’re really excited to get underway and have convinced some of our young people to help us write these blogs this week.

Kieran: It was my birthday today not sure about sitting on a boat all day but oh well, we had a safety briefing not long after getting aboard, then it was pretty relaxed just finding ourselves and about each other. We went out to the cinema while the ship’s crew stayed aboard. We settled into bar afterwards for my first legal pint!

Introduction went well we met the four crew members. Our skipper, Sue. First Mate, Gary. And volunteer crewmen, Freddie and Neville (Papa smurf). We had a briefing while the weather took a turn for the worse, however its lighted up as we finished up our briefings. YMCA youth participants where split into two watches Starboard and Port. Starboard pulled the short straw and cooked first night, they made lovely chicken fajitas. Some people mentioned that the boats movements with the flow of the tide took a little getting used to.